“Dell and Napster said they will provide colleges with a legal online music hardware and software package. The offering combines Napster’s digital music service with Dell’s PowerEdge 1855 servers that will boost network bandwidth at schools. Colleges will be able to use the servers to store music from Napster’s library locally, allowing network processing speed to remain fast while hundreds of students simultaneously download music. Under the deal, Dell will sell Napster subscriptions to additional colleges and universities at a discounted academic rate and also offer special prices on bundles that include Dell’s digital music players,’ Wired News reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Any school that takes Dell and Napster up on this “offer” should also post signs around campus that read, “Mac-using and/or iPod-using students not welcome here.”
Napster does not work with Macintosh or iPod. And nobody except Michael Dell seems to want a clunky, ugly Dell DJ. Doing such a deal would be akin to a U.S. school replacing all of its library’s English books with Chinese versions.
School officials should offer their students a completely cross platform solution. Apple’s iTunes is the only music solution that all students on Macs or Windows PCs can use. Fact time: 80-90% or more of students own and use iPods, not Dell DJs. Do you even know anyone who owns a Dell DJ? And, surely, students would like easy access to thousands of podcasts, right?
Students who do not wish to be excluded from (and potentially still charged a fee for) their school’s legal music system should inform decision makers of Apple’s iTunes on Campus program.
According to Forbes, “The University of Washington is the first school to sign up and will market the service and Dell’s portable players to students. Napster will offer discounted rates on its subscriptions, as will Dell for PCs and players.” Full article here.
Send a comment to The University of Washington here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Napster, other Windows Media-based music services ‘chasing a niche opportunity’ – June 29, 2005
Napster To Go Soon? Reports $24.3 million net loss on $17.4 million net revenue – May 12, 2005
Napster users admit sharing passwords to save on subscription costs – April 08, 2005
Napster is a joke – April 05, 2005
Napster raises fourth-quarter revenue forecast from $16.5 to $17.5 million – April 05, 2005
Colleges offering students music services that aren’t cross-platform, don’t work with iPod – March 22, 2005
Mossberg: Apple’s iTunes Music Store vs. Napster To Go – March 18, 2005
Napster CEO Gorog: Steve Jobs ‘must be pretty frightened’ of Napster To Go – March 14, 2005
Apple’s iTunes Music Store downloads pass 300 million songs milestone (with chart) – March 02, 2005
Napster’s math does not add up – February 28, 2005
Napster’s dirty little secret: changing subscription services into downloads is easy – February 18, 2005
Napster feels the heat over flawed copy-protection scheme – February 17, 2005
Apple CEO Steve Jobs warns record industry of Napster To Go’s security gap – February 16, 2005
Users thwart Napster To Go’s copy protection; do the music labels realize the piracy potential? – February 15, 2005
Napster-To-Go’s ‘rental music’ DRM circumvented – February 14, 2005
Napster CEO Gorog: ‘it’s stupid to buy an iPod’ – February 10, 2005
Report: Napster faces uphill fight to gain share, Apple prepared to run iTunes at a loss – February 10, 2005
Napster’s ‘iPodlessness’ doesn’t bode well for its future – February 10, 2005
$10,000 to fill an iPod? Napster’s going to end up with egg on their face – February 04, 2005
Why ‘Napster To Go’ will flop – February 03, 2005
Napster CEO: We’re ‘the biggest brand in digital music, much more exciting than Apple’s iTunes’ – February 03, 2005
Cornell University’s Mac users ‘uniformly unhappy’ with Napster – January 19, 2005
Cornell University wrestles with Napster’s exclusion of Mac and iPod-using students – September 08, 2004
Why are Cornell’s Mac students being forced to pay for useless Napster? – September 07, 2004
Napster schools to Mac-using students: bend over and take it – September 04, 2004
Apple launches ‘iTunes on Campus’ institutional site license program – April 28, 2004
And if they went with iTunes, would they have to post “Dell DJ users not welcome?”
… you mean people actually OWN Dell DJs?
jesus, what a crock that thing is…
With protected-WMA not working on iPods and FairPlay-AAC not working on anything but an iPod, sooner or later something has gotta happen.
Obviously the schools could somehow set up some sort of iPod/ITMS deal (other that the bulk purchasing that already exists), but not everyone would go for that.
Can Apple keep up its dominance until all the WMA stores are out of business? Can the iPod remain the top portable music player if WMA stores start offering dirt-cheap or university-funded downloads?
“And if they went with iTunes, would they have to post “Dell DJ users not welcome?”
Yeah, they need to be careful of angering those 5 or 6 people on campus.
So if Dell/Napster come up with a good idea, it doesn’t count because it wasn’t Apple’s good idea? Please…
This is a great service to offer and I wish Apple would follow the idea train all the way to the bank on this one. Recruit customers, lessen bandwidth costs and server load/traffic, and get publicity on campus. Not to mention, establish a corporate relationship with the University. Brilliant going Napster & Dell!
My MDN word is “distance”
Schools should not be in the music business.
I have always disliked the tax on students in the form of a activity fee.
Anyone want to start a pool to see which universities server will be hacked first??? It’s an obvious targeet since the “winner” will receive over 1,000,000 songs as a reward!
…this is not about getting into a “business” – it’s about fear of legal liability for illegal file sharing.
A good tactic by Dell, but schools are presenting a service that most students with digital music players can’t use.
However, students with windows can still stream all they want, correct? Seems like a reason for Apple to offer a subscription service -at least on campuses.
iTunes Radio and Podcasts stream just fine (for free) on both Mac and Windows PCs. Students can rip their CDs to iTunes on both Mac and Windows PCs. Students can buy songs on both Mac and Windows PCs that will actually work with their iPods. Nobody is excluded.
Living in the city that will host the 2012 Olympics, I’ve never even seen a Dell DJ.
I also don’t think I will have seen one by the time the Games start.
I only know of one person who has a Dell DJ.
I played around w/ it and its interface is clunky.
The only reason he got the Dell was because it was cheaper.
But now its broke. The thing actually froze up (ever see that on an iPod?) and caused the HD to fail.
Now he’s looking at the new color iPods…and (b/c of me) a brand new iBook for school.
He doesn’t really care about the iNtel switch…then again PC users won’t cry if the Dell they bought 5 days ago was upgraded.
-PowerMac
What’s worse – pissing off the 90% of students using iPods, or the pf students using non-iPods?
I met someone this past weekend who actually owns a Dell DJ. There’s a first time for everything.
Since iTunes is a free download, does it really matter? I mean, any student who doesn’t want to use such a vapid solution as Dell/Napster are providing can just download iTunes.
Well, a lot of Universities are getting this service FOR FREE from Napster.
Why hasn’t Apple followed suit?
Apple should offer to put an Xserve with a RAID system on each campus for free. Apple should then stock it with the iTunes Music Store. Apple could update these servers once per week. (IF a person wanted a song on the main iTMS system which was not yet on the on campus system — and did not want to wait — then they could purchase it directly from Apple as normal.) All the university/college would have to do is provide a secure location for it.
The system would only (nominally) be available to the campus intranet (students, faculty and staff and only from on campus systems) — known user log in and known IP address, etc.
Apple could then sell the songs on it for an educational discount price.
Apple would make up the decreased price of the songs and the cost of the initial setup in less than a semester by increased song sales and increased iPod sales.
What’s worse – pissing off the 90% of students using iPods, or the pf students using non-iPods?
—
Ironic Mac marketshare zing in 5..4..3..2..
Of course, I don’t want to forget about pissing off the one “mike”…
But seriously, college students are more hip than the rest of the market, and hence I estimate that they are even more intensely iPod using. I know only one college-age person who uses a non-iPod digital music player.
Apple needs to offer a similar subscription model so Colleges and Universities can make the right choice effectively!
It’s funny to see people write that the schools shouldn’t go with the Dell solution because it will exclude the iPod users. But don’t care if going the iTMS way will exclude the non iPod users.
What’s wrong with providing both solutions so “everyone” can have whatever device they want? Or at the least don’t provide any; just let each student provide for themselves.
Also, to all of you “let’s only support iTMS” because it has the “biggest” market share and screw the 10 percenters.
I guess you also support the schools “only” supporting the computer platform with the “biggest” market share? Better leave that iBook or PB at home and pick yourself up a Dell then…dumb asses; I bet you’re the same people arguing how “significant” a 2% market share really is…
How is this different from the existing Napster racket that universities were trying to force on their students, other than having the servers local instead of accessing over the Internet? Sounds like Dell pulled a fast one and got some suckers to bite.
I’m surprise the lawyers haven’t siezed on this class action opportunity. For most, it’s like taxation without representation.
“I guess you also support the schools “only” supporting the computer platform with the “biggest” market share? Better leave that iBook or PB at home and pick yourself up a Dell then…dumb asses; I bet you’re the same people arguing how “significant” a 2% market share really is…”
You’re the dumb ass since you’re comparing Apples to Oranges here. Since when does a campus network require a Windows PC in order to log in and connect? It doesn’t matter what OS you’re using. Whereas with a music player, you need a store that supports the dominate player (since they’re all proprietary) and that happens to be the Apple iPod/iTunes Music Store.
Jerry T:
The Dell/Napster “solution” will exclude the Mac users. That’s more important than just the iPod users. It’s not an even tradeoff. iPod/iTunes is the only fully cross platform (counting Linux hacks) solution I know of.
The thing most interesting to me in this deal is that it once again shows how everybody but Apple is working hard trying to create markets for their portable music products. After the first Pepsi promo Apple has just had to concentrate on improving their product. The consumer is more than happy to buy.
can’t you just just burn the WMA songs to CD and re-rip?
This is the solution presented by iPod fanboys… why can’t the reverse be true?
<It’s funny to see people write that the schools shouldn’t go with the Dell solution because it will exclude the iPod users. But don’t care if going the iTMS way will exclude the non iPod users. >
Using your flawed logic, I guess schools should support only operating systems other than Windows be used on campus then? Excluding the platform that has the overwhelming number of users is absolutely idiotic and that’s why they shouldn’t go with the Dell solution.